COLLECTING IN THE CHILTERNS. 99 



always much to be seen and enjoyed on these delightful and breezy 

 uplands. I have spotted here the first Ar/lais urticae of the year 

 fanning his wings on some bright March morning when the wind 

 sweeps the last leaves from the lower beech trees, and only in the 

 hollow of the road or some disused chalk-pit is it possible to escape 

 the boisterous nor'-easter. On such a day the sky above our heads 

 seems suddenly lifted ; the atmosphere is clear as glass, and it requires 

 little imagination to hear the voice of spring sounding cheerily across 

 the great vale of Aylesbury at our feet, where the young lambs are 

 bleating and the vivid green of the new wheat intersects the browner 

 patches of pasture land, that appear from our higher elevation like the 

 regular chequers of the chess-board. Cross to the southern slopes a 

 little later, and in the deep lane which divides the budding coppices, 

 you will not have to wait long before (Tonojdenj.r rhawni, like a winged 

 primrose flashes out among the tender saplings, chasing the April Pieria 

 — -"Where she launches on her virgin liight, A pearl among the 

 emerald of the trees." The woods are full, indeed, of " Brimstones," 

 but I have, here at any rate, found the females largely in excess of the 

 males. In the same locality, and everywhere on the sunny sides, 

 EhcJiIoi' canliDiiim's and the larger P. hra.sHicae flit restlessly to and fro, 

 though hitherto I have not come across T,"iiri)pliasia sinajii.si. In 

 early seasons April is hardly over before Pob/oiinnatiis icarux, Sj/n'rthiix 

 uialvac, and T/uiiiaijn taijc^, with ('Ih-i/sojjIudhis pJdacaH and a belated 

 Pi/irDiu'i'i atalanta or two come to swell the list, while in May, on tha 

 extreme summit of the pass, to the left, among the scrub and beech 

 woods, ('allopJiri/a nihi literally swarms, and Coeuont/Diplia pamphibi^, 

 with the first brood of /'. astrarcJic, is equally abundant. Come again 

 in mid June. The woods are now in all the full beauty of their first 

 tender foliage ; the grass is deep upon the lower slopes, and at every 

 step the air is sweet with the fragrance of the sweet-scentei orchis, 

 which, with its congener the bee-orchis, occurs everywhere in profu- 

 sion, among the patches of golden cistus, and purple-red burnet. ('. 

 nibi is now going over, but the hillside is alive with r//y>/(/<Mj)ni?>»fl, 

 Pierids innumerable, and, among theHeterocera, ^4(/xc/^«.s^rt^/(v.s, Xcweo- 

 pliila jdantai/inis, and other day-fliers. A cloud passes over the sun, 

 and we lie down upon the velvet terrace, noting that upon many a 

 stalk Antltnxrni filijunihdch'has already woven its pearly cocoon, while a 

 few " early birds " boom lazily among the milk-worts and flaming hawk- 

 Aveed. Kinni'phdc ianira, too, springs up as the sun streams out again, 

 and we have barely time to enjoy the splendid prospect of the poppied 

 corn-fields at our feet, bafore the net is again requisitioned for the first 

 immaculate specimen of Knodia hjijirrantlnis. Pawphila .st/lcauiis, and 

 perhaps Tln/iiiclinis tJumwas as well, may greet the sight of the collec- 

 tor, and, no doubt, a later expedition in the first days of August, 

 will yield an even better bag, for when I bade good-bye to the chalk- 

 hills on the third of Heptembar last year, I had seen enough to con- 

 vince me of the fact. The downs then were all burnt up ; the corn 

 fields gathered into golden sheaves, and the foliagi^ of that deeper tint 

 Avhich memory associates with the plenitude of summer. A mile or so 

 back on the Wendover road I caught a glimpse of ('iili(i>i oliisa, the sole 



t There is a locality for /.. yinapi.t and C. palaemou {i)(itii:<ci(^) in the extreme 

 north-west corner of the county (Cf. Ent. Hec, vol. ii., p. 233). 



